One of my favorite juice places in all of India has to be the popular Juice House in Ram Jhula, Rishikesh. The city is situated on the foothills of the Himalayas and along the Ganges river. It is a place of pilgrimage and a very holy and peaceful place.

The juice stall is a popular travellers’ hangout and is always full. Usually you need to squeeze into a shared booth and it can take 20 minutes to get served but it’s worth the wait. The mango lassi as featured above is full of mangos and has fresh pomegranates on top with shredded coconut $2. They have many fresh fruit and veggie juice combos along with smoothies including some which have avocado.

Their other popular menu item is their fruit salad and the one shown above is a replica that I made at home. I usually get the vegan version which comes with muesli, bananas, watermelon, papaya, mangos, pineapple, coconut, pomegranate, soy milk, date syrup and mint $2.80.

The date syrup was difficult to find so I decided to make my own. I soaked a cup of dates in warm water for a couple hours. Then I puréed the dates and water in a Vitamix blender. Squeezed out the date pulp and put the liquid into a saucepan and brought to a boil. I cooked the liquid until it thickened, allowed it to cool and poured it over the fruit. It was so heavenly that I ate it everyday for over a week.

I opted out of my daily coffee fix at 49th Parallel Coffee and tried one of their offering for the 6th Annual Hot Chocolate Festival. I got The Bee’s Knees which is dark chocolate infused with lavender syrup, topped with steamed milk and a honey marshmallow. It was served with a honey/lavender biscotti dipped in white chocolate ($6).

The hot chocolate was smooth and felt silky as it went down my throat. I drank it quite quickly and then tried the freshly made and still soft biscotti. The honey flavour was prominent and the white chocolate finished it perfectly. I only ate one of them as I quickly reached my sweet tooth threshold.

My daughter, a queen concoctor of hot chocolate got the Saturday Nut Fever ($6). A hazelnut hot chocolate with hazelnut amaretti and a hazelnut truffle. Every bite tasted of nuts and is perfect for the nut lover.

It was a fun experience to try these creative drinks with delectable sweet pairings. We will most likely try a couple more places during the festival. For more information on the 6th Annual Hot Chocolate Festival, you can visit their website for a list of participating venues and their hot chocolate menus at http://www.hotchocolatefest.com.

One of my favourite meals in Chicago was at the Chicago Diner. It is amazing restaurant that puts a vegetarian twist on comfort foods and their menu includes seitan buffalo wings, a tofu “fish” filet and heavenly vegan desserts. I think I starred at the menu for about 20 minutes as I could not decide what to order and everything sounded so good.

I decided on the vegan faux fish fillet as the one thing that I miss being vegetarian is fish and chips. The sandwich came on a very thin bun with tartar sauce and panko encrusted tofu. I ordered it with a side of kale but the other tempting option was waffle fries which I opted out of.

I cut the sandwich in half and took a bite. The crunchy panko tofu with the vegan tartar sauce made a close impression to it’s original. It was a nice treat to eat a resemblance of fish after over 20 years of abstinence. The meal was very filling and I had half a sandwich leftover.

My friend had saved room for dessert and I took a couple bites of this decadent vegan caramel crunch torte with vegan whipped cream. It was so rich and delicious, I enjoyed every bite.

The meal was so delicious and satisfying that I swore to go back there everyday for all of my meals. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it back and the next time that I visit Chicago it’s the first place that I will visit.

The service was great, food was amazing and the price was very fair. The Rishi chai was $3.50, golden fillet sandwich 10.99 and the dessert $5.99. The Chicago Diner has two locations one on Halsted Street and one in Logan Square. Visit their website for more info www.veggiedinercom.

Wow, two years has flown by! In the past two years I have written eighty posts and shared many stories and recipes with you. One of the reasons why I started this blog was to give people ideas on how to incorporate healthy meals into their everyday busy lives. I believe that there is a strong connection between diet and health and the quality of our lives. It all starts with what we put inside of ourselves.

For Coriander Kitchen’s second birthday, I decided to celebrate in style with a healthier version of the cupcake. Coconut cake is my favourite and I found a vegan recipe online by Chloe Coscarelli winner of Cupcake Wars. This cupcake is so delicious and really easy to make. It was super moist and you won’t even realize that it’s vegan.

Thanks for everyone for reading my blog and I hope that you enjoy what’s to come.

To make the Coconut Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together coconut milk, oil, vanilla, and vinegar. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk until just combined. Do not over mix.

Fill the cupcake liners about two-thirds full with batter. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean with a few crumbs clinging to it. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.

To make the Coconut Frosting: Using a handheld or stand mixer, beat the coconut oil until smooth. With the mixer running on low, add powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon coconut milk at a time, as needed, until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency. You may not need to use all.

Last weekend I went to the annual Greek Days celebration on West Broadway in Vancouver. I mark the yearly event on my calendar and save my appetite for the delicious goodies that are for sale. As the years have gone by, there has been a huge increase in vegetarian options available. Last year, I tried the veggie gyros which was a disappointment so I decided to start my culinary pilgrimage at the Malaysian restaurant, the Banana Leaf. The had two vegetarian options: the roti canai ($2.75) and vegetable spring rolls ($2.75/2 pieces), so I bought both. They were both delicious though a little hard to eat while standing up.

The next item on my agenda was dessert and specifically, the greek donuts loukoumades ($4).

These golf ball sized pastries are made fresh and fried right on the side of the street. When they turn golden brown in colour, they are placed into a colander to allow the excess oil to drain.

Next, they are gently rolled and bobbed in a sweet sugar syrup.

When you order your donuts, they are scooped into a container and sprinkled with roasted sesame seeds. Each bite of the donut was heaven. The donut was not too doughy nor too sweet and the sesame seeds added a nice savoury touch.

After I ate my donuts, I was quite full and continued on my journey. I tried a greek salad, ate some olives and drooled over another person’s greek fries. By the time I left, I was so full and surprised at all the number of veggie options that were available this year. Overall it was a great food adventure and next year I will go with a couple of companions so that I can try all the veggie items.

Method:
1. Combine the rhubarb, apples, lemon, water, 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon in a mixing bowl.
2. Combine the oats, flour, pecans, 1/4 cup sugar, salt and butter in another mixing bowl.
3. Transfer the rhubarb and apple mixture into a baking dish and top with the dry ingredients.
4. Bake in the oven until the apples are soft and the topping is crisp about 35-45 minutes.
5. Serve with vanilla ice cream if you dare.

As the weather warms up, I often get a hankering for ice cream and the best place to satisfy that desire is at La Casa Gelato located on 1033 Venables, just off Clark Street in Vancouver. With 218 flavours to choose from, try not to get dizzy from walking in circles and trying the different samples. After deciding which beverage to order in a coffee shop, this is probably the second most difficult food ordering decision that you will have to make.

I was surprised to see adult offerings like their Guinness sorbetto that tastes quite strongly of the actual beer and has a surprising clean after taste. They also had a Jack Daniels whiskey flavour which I did not dare to try.

Casa Gelato’s creative flavours are endless like their pear blue cheese with gorgonzola which was heavy on the cheese with a sharp after taste and a sample was enough to make my taste buds happy. My favourite ice cream flavour is coffee and I got their most popular one, espresso with chocolate flakes. The espresso was strong and the ice cream was not too sweet or milky, exactly the way that I like it. I always love going to La Casa Gelato and will pop in throughout the summer.